quincuncial

comparative more quincuncial · superlative most quincuncial

1. Arranged in a quincunx.

   Of this Quincunciall Ordination the Ancients practiſed much[,] diſcourſed little; […]

   1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter I.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 98

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   In architecture the quincunxial shape was considered a sort of housing for the divine power – a battery, if you like, which gathered into itself the divinity as it tried to pour earthward, to earth itself – just like an electrical current does.

   1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1297

2. biologyHaving the leaves of a pentamerous calyx or corolla so imbricated that two are exterior, two are interior, and the other has one edge exterior and one interior.

   quincuncial aestivation